


More of a Hatshepsut

by lovcats



Category: Beyoncé Knowles (Musician), Check Please! (Webcomic), Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé (concert film)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 16:30:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18876928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovcats/pseuds/lovcats
Summary: Jack is a history nerd with opinions on art.





	More of a Hatshepsut

**Author's Note:**

> Author 100% put her thoughts on Beyoncé, Nefertiti, and Hatshepsut into history nerd Jack Zimmerman's mouth.

Beyoncé's Homecoming hit Netflix, and Jack was so there for it. As Eric Bittle's boyfriend, he was familiar with Queen Bey's oeuvre and had become a fan.  
Now, Bitty had _been at_ the actual _Beychella_. The Falconers had been in playoffs, but Jack got an earful about the concert. And Jack believed that it had been an amazing show - even though Bitty perhaps overused words like "transcendent" about Beyoncé - so he was pleased but not surprised to see the spectacle had been documentary-movie worthy. Jack's favorite genre. Nice.  
So Jack and Bitty gleefully settled in for Homecoming, with a peanut butter pie and more anticipation than any sports broadcast had elicited from them in years, if ever (they watched so. much. sports).  
Bitty gushed over the shots and closeups, relived the high of the concert, and almost held his breath during the narrative interludes. Jack admired the story of Beyoncé's hard work and leadership, marveling at the dedication she apparently inspired even though she was definitely a hardass.  
And boy, did they talk costumes. The pink concert vs the yellow concert. That crest. "Those jumpsuits are a reference to mass incarceration, right?"  
"That regal Nefertiti costume," Bitty sighed.  
"She's a queen," agreed Jack. "But Hatshepsut would have been a better reference. She's more of a Hatshepsut."  
This pronouncement earned Jack a, "What? Who?"  
"The female pharaoh, Hatshepsut. That bust of Nefertiti is iconic, but Hatshepsut was a cooler ruler. Haha, I rhymed."  
"Jack, what? Who was Hasheput? Why do you think she's a better queen?"  
"Well, uhm, it's like because of the gender thing. Beyoncé is an artist who invokes certain male-associated things sometimes to claim high status. She's doing it to swagger, and the juxtaposition of those things with her femininity, like highlights how the higher status of men is absurd and unfair and arbitrary. Like she and her female dancers doing that 'suck my balls' thing? And she used autotune or something to do that deep voice? And in Formation she offers to make her lover a Black Bill Gates, and then she's like 'Wait, naw, _I'm_ a Black Bill Gates.'  
All that reminds me of Hatshepsut, who was a great female pharaoh. Nefertiti might have ruled as a regent for a few years, but her husband Akhenaten was the power in that couple. Hatshepsut was great on her own. And that was rare. She wore that stylized beard, because it was a pharaonic symbol that happened to be a male thing."  
"Oh my god, Jack, do you think Bey shoulda walked out with that cape and a _pharaoh beard_ instead of her gorgeous headdress?"  
"Uh, yeah, that would've been cool? Although the headdress was probably a better aesthetic choice?"  
Bitty giggled, "Bless your heart, you're such a dork. I can't believe I'm in love with such a nerd."  
Jack gave a shrug that he 100% based on the shruggy emoticon. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ And for that got called "nerd," again while he got kissed, hugged and a little bit shook. 'Swawesome.


End file.
